"Nebraska can't be irrelevant forever," (Pat)Dooley said.

[Eric the Red]

NU Football: Football previews bullish about Huskers

 

BY RICH KAIPUST

WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

 

 

 

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• Huskers add two linebackers to recruit list

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LINCOLN — Bo Ruud does a pretty good "Aw, shucks" when asked about the magazines.

 

Regional Big 12 issues of Lindy's and Phil Steele's College Football Preview feature the Nebraska linebacker on the cover. Ruud stands alone on Lindy's with the backdrop shaded gray.

 

Yeah, he's seen it. One of his friends dropped one off for him.

 

"It's the first time I've ever been on a magazine, so it was pretty cool," Ruud said.

 

"I take a look at those now and then. It's just one of those things where you look at them, but it's not super important what they say."

 

That's probably a correct statement.

 

Your $6.99 gets you information written in the spring and rushed to newsstands more than two months before the first kickoff.

 

But round them up, and the consensus is usually an indicator of the public perception of your program.

 

In this case, NU is usually tabbed as the Big 12 North favorite and somewhere between No. 15 and No. 25 in preseason Top 25s. As with a year ago, there's not much for the NU fan to get too riled up about. Not like 2004 and 2005, when the Huskers could find motivation in a snub.

 

"In Nebraska there's such a high standard that when people don't think you'll be much, it kind of gets under your skin," Ruud said. "But what matters most is what you do on the football field."

 

The Huskers' expectations, of course, are greater than just being a Top 25 team, winning nine games and taking the Big 12 North — even if that's what the magazines are roughly predicting in 2007. Speaking in Omaha two weeks ago, NU head coach Bill Callahan enthusiastically told a luncheon crowd that he thought the Husker program was on the verge of doing something special.

 

"What I've noticed is every year since Coach Callahan has taken over there's a new confidence we seem to get every season," Ruud said. "Now building confidence isn't something we have to do, it's something we've already got.

 

"Now guys are hungry to make something happen. It's not, 'Let's get back to being a good team.' Now it's, 'We are a good team. Let's go win something.'"

 

The Gainesville (Fla.) Sun apparently is on board with that thinking. Columnist Pat Dooley last week put Nebraska at No. 4 nationally when the paper took its stab at forecasting the future, listing the Huskers behind Texas, Ohio State and Southern Cal.

 

"Nebraska can't be irrelevant forever," Dooley said. "I think it's about time in Callahan's tenure, and it would seem like the timing's right. You look around the country this year and there's just nothing that jumps out at you. Everybody's picking USC, but that same team lost to UCLA last year."

 

Dooley said he was basing much of his prediction on a belief that quarterback Sam Keller will star in his first and only season at NU. The Sporting News and Lindy's have tabbed Keller as Big 12 newcomer of the year.

 

Most publications are projecting Ruud and guard Matt Slauson as first-team All-Big 12 players. Athlon's has Ruud as a second-team All-American.

 

Lindy's ranks the NU linebacking crew as the best in the Big 12. The starters are Ruud, Corey McKeon and Steve Octavien, backed by Lance Brandenburgh and Phillip Dillard.

 

"We've got four or five guys who are starters," Ruud said. "I think we're as good as anybody at linebacker in the country. That's my thought."

 

 

What they say

 

 

 

ATHLON'S

 

• NU in Top 25: No. 18

• NU in the Big 12: Third

• Big 12 North: First

• All-Big 12: First team - Bo Ruud, LB; Matt Slauson, OG. Second - Ndamukong Suh, DT. Third - Corey McKeon, LB; Maurice Purify, WR.

• Oops: Magazines already were sitting on newsstands with Maurice Purify on regional Big 12 covers when the receiver was suspended indefinitely.

• Notable: Ranks the Huskers' receivers and tight ends No. 1 in the Big 12. Ever think you'd see the day?

• Big words: "(Sam) Keller should be just as - if not more - productive than predecessor Zac Taylor."

 

LINDY'S

 

• NU in Top 25: No. 25

• NU in the Big 12: Fourth

• Big 12 North: First

• All-Big 12: First team - Bo Ruud, LB; Matt Slauson, OG. Second - Ndamukong Suh, DT; Maurice Purify, WR.

• Notable: Plugs Sam Keller as both Big 12 newcomer of the year and "strongest arm" among QBs but doesn't list the senior among its Top 25 nationally at the position. Who is ranked?

• Big words: Of Sept. 15 USC-NU game, "Something tells us USC won't win as easily as it did last season in the Coliseum."

 

SPORTING NEWS

 

• NU in Top 25: No. 23

• NU in the Big 12: Third

• Big 12 North: First

• All-Big 12: First team - Bo Ruud, LB; Matt Slauson, OG. Second - Ndamukong Suh, DT; Maurice Purify, WR.

• Notable: Places Bill Callahan at No. 21 among head coaches in BCS conferences (one spot behind Houston Nutt, by the way). Calls for NU over Texas on its "calendar of upsets."

• Big words: "Nix those national title dreams and focus on winning the Big 12. That means going 4-0 in league play at home and splitting on the road. It's possible, and should be enough to win the North."

 

PHIL STEELE'S PREVIEW

 

• NU in Top 25: No. 22

• NU in the Big 12: Fourth

• Big 12 North: Second

• All-Big 12: First team - Bo Ruud, LB. Second - Corey McKeon, LB; Andre Jones, CB; Maurice Purify, WR; Matt Slauson, OG; Lydon Murtha, OT; Dan Titchener, P; Terrence Nunn, PR. Third - Ndamukong Suh, DT; Cortney Grixby, CB; Tierre Green, FS; Marlon Lucky, IB.

• Notable: Calls Huskers' schedule No. 17 toughest in Division I-A.

• Big words: "Even with USC and Texas on the schedule, I give the Huskers a great shot at topping last year's nine wins."

[Drowning_in_the_Sea_of_Red]

Holy Crap! FOURTH?! This guy believes in this team more than probably half of Husker Nation!

[huskernumerouno]

That is what I was thinking

[westgatehusker]

Holy Crap! FOURTH?! This guy believes in this team more than probably half of Husker Nation!

lets hope the cornhuskers play up to that and everybody's not laughing at him come january

[HUSKER 37]

Holy Crap! FOURTH?! This guy believes in this team more than probably half of Husker Nation!

This was emailed to me by an old girlfriend a couple weeks ago.

http://www.huskerboard.com/forums/index.ph...st&p=179328

 

Reading Dooley takes a little practice..Sometimes he writes outrageous stuff just to get noticed.

But with Keller, any thing's possible

[BGREDSTUCKN IA]

I don't know much about this Dooley dude. But I think that along with NCAA basketball, football is just as hard to predict long term. I think its great that some out there think that we are on the rise back towards the top. And this may in fact happen this year. We don't know. We know what we have potential to do. I will say it again like a lot of others say, that predicting polls this far in advanced before anyone has stepped on the field is kind of silly. I hope we can do it. We have tons of POTENTIAL playmakers that can make it happen if they play up to it week in and week out.

[mbhusker13]

I just ROFL at the people who think Mizzo will win the North. Colorado fans pick Mizzo becauseof their denial about Nebraska up and coming into the national spotlight, but Mizzery?

 

Answering to "Mizzery will be irrelevant forever," (Matt)mbhusker13 said.

[CowboyBob]

I agree. We won't be irrelevant forever. Our administration won't let that happen.

 

But 4th is pretty high.

 

The only way we finish 4th is if we go 13-1 and our loss is USC. Possible. Not really probable at all though.